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MusicalVeggies
This C-drama xianxia (i.e. supernatural historical fantasy) is one pretty amazing combination of Romeo & Juliet and Game of Thrones put together. If you're interested in a chinese supernatural fantasy show with a well-crafted story that introduces coherent, well-depicted characters who undergo amazing character development and changes, and if you're interested in shows that take you on one exhilarating roller-coaster ride of emotions and story arcs, this will be the show for you.
STORY (No spoilers)
For the C-novel readers:
To manage expectations, I'd like to take a short section to address those who've read the C-novel on which this drama is based and are thinking of watching this show. Firstly and most importantly, please kindly put aside your preconceptions because while this show does follow the novel, it does it in very broad strokes. Key events and key character actions are retained but the journey/ route to those events and actions can be very different. This might disappoint some of you if you're going into the show thinking that it will be a completely faithful reproduction of the novel. In order to help you enjoy this show, I'd like to encourage you to watch it with an open mind. If it helps, I personally found that by doing so and by following the story the drama itself is trying to tell, the plot-threads and character portrayals all hold together very well and this show becomes a more substantial adaptation and, I'd even venture to say, a more glorious homage to its original source material.
For non-novel readers & newcomers:
This show is more than just a pure xianxia romance. I was pleasantly surprised with how meaty and more substantial this show was, and how multi-faceted it can be. It will surprise you with its twists and turns, and with the evolution of our main characters as it progresses. Love (particularly star-crossed love or ill-fated love) and obsession are key themes but they are not the only ones. Themes of filial piety, integrity, loyalty, ambition, vengeance/ revenge, sacrifice, atonement and redemption are also wonderfully built into this show. This is a dish of many flavours. It's not pure sugar though it may start off on the sweet side. It will surprise you with its turns of fiery spice, bitterness and sweet-and-sour, with a touch of savoury thrown in.
Also, to help you understand a bit of what the show is like so that you're prepared, here's a broad outline:
The first half is full of sweetness and comedy, light-hearted and fluffy with some small build-up of plot threads. The romance development here is eminently ML-focused (he falls in love first and fast) and it runs the gamut of playful to moving as it progresses.
The 2nd half will start to bring together several plot threads introduced in the 1st half and so side characters have more screen-time as the show fleshes their story arcs and motivations. The main couple will also encounter love trials along the line of star-crossed love/ ill-fated love (hence the Romeo & Juliet premise). The trials have sound basis and foundation though, so it's not stupid misunderstandings and noble idiocy type issues. But the trials eventually prove and confirm their love and in the end, they overcome them for a suitable end.
I'd really like to encourage you to watch this show as it is quite amazingly crafted and if you like romance shows with a bit more complexity to it and to have more substance to it, this will suit you very well.
ACTING/ CAST
With over 60 episodes, this show's cast is not small. Screen-time for our characters will fluctuate depending on the plot thread in focus at the time so please don't expect our main characters or main couple to continuously dominate the screen. The show takes some pains to explore and flesh out some of its key side characters too, which is really great because it makes the show less riddled with one-dimensional/ cardboard cut-out characters. Even our 'stock villains' are given realistic internal motivations and drivers, and the 'comic relief' characters surprisingly have a core of values in them too. I personally found myself growing fond of many side characters (e.g. Yuanji Immortal, Moon Immortal, Yan You, Water Immortal and Lian Yuan) which makes this show extra enjoyable/ watchable to me. Love them!
Spotlight on our main leads:
DENG LUN as Xu Feng (aka Phoenix), the Fire Immortal. C-novel readers will probably be a bit surprised at Deng Lun's portrayal and take as our God of War, but I liked this different characterisation of our main male lead in this drama. He's not your perfect male lead, not by any means, but he has a strongly loyal, warm and loving heart. This central and core aspect of his character is wonderfully and consistently portrayed throughout the show and Deng Lun's less imposing physic and his warm voice (I just loved the fact that he voice-dubbed his own character!) makes him a more approachable and less dominating character than his C-novel counterpart.
Acting-wise, I think Deng Lun did well in portraying Xu Feng's emotional and character development. I think he does his character justice and that's good enough for me.
YANG ZI as Jin Mi, our Little Grape and Flower Immortal. I personally think that this is not an easy role for any actress to portray as her character undergoes a lot of ups-and-downs, internal conflicts and changes in this show, but kudos to Yang Zi for being able to make her a naively cheerful Little Grape at the start, and to showcase her evolution as the show progresses. She had me invested in her character and in her character's story and progress throughout the show.
LEO LUO YUNXI as Run Yu, the Night Immortal. Like Jin Mi, his character also undergoes a lot of ups-and-downs, internal conflicts and changes in this show and I have to also hand it to this actor, he rose to the occasion in this drama. As one of the 3 main leads in this show, he certainly has not been overshadowed by his fellow co-stars on the acting-front and some of his key scenes really brought the emotions out through the screen.
I personally think that our 3 main leads were well-balanced on the acting-front. No one consistently overshadowed or out-acted the other, everyone was on more or less equal footing in terms of screen-presence and screen-impact, to me. The well-balanced nature of it made the show good, because there is nothing worse than to have a co-star consistently overshadowing or out-acting you in front of the screen, making the scene imbalanced and making the actor and character being overshadowed to be out of place.
MUSIC
There appears to be 3 theme songs for this show (male and female version of the opening, and the ending theme song), and while they are lovely and beautiful in their own right, and when well-employed in a scene they really elevate the moment, I personally felt that the limitation of songs later on became a bit of liability to the show as, with over 60 episodes, there is going to be inevitable song-fatigue. I personally think that this is one area in the show which could really do with additional work and improvement to make it truly great, but well, it is what it is.
RE-WATCH VALUE
I personally loved the first half of the show to bits and can see myself re-playing a lot of it in future. The second half where the real business end of the show starts picking up steam is compelling and addicting to watch for the first time because of the breathless anticipation of wanting to know what happens next. I am not sure how re-watchable this section will be in future once the suspense and excitement is over but it doesn't make this show any less impressive on its own merits.
EDIT: Since writing this review, I've re-watched almost the entire show twice more so clearly my fears about the watchability of the 2nd half was unfounded. In fact, a lot of the emotional scenes in the 2nd half were some of the best scenes in this show.
STORY (No spoilers)
For the C-novel readers:
To manage expectations, I'd like to take a short section to address those who've read the C-novel on which this drama is based and are thinking of watching this show. Firstly and most importantly, please kindly put aside your preconceptions because while this show does follow the novel, it does it in very broad strokes. Key events and key character actions are retained but the journey/ route to those events and actions can be very different. This might disappoint some of you if you're going into the show thinking that it will be a completely faithful reproduction of the novel. In order to help you enjoy this show, I'd like to encourage you to watch it with an open mind. If it helps, I personally found that by doing so and by following the story the drama itself is trying to tell, the plot-threads and character portrayals all hold together very well and this show becomes a more substantial adaptation and, I'd even venture to say, a more glorious homage to its original source material.
For non-novel readers & newcomers:
This show is more than just a pure xianxia romance. I was pleasantly surprised with how meaty and more substantial this show was, and how multi-faceted it can be. It will surprise you with its twists and turns, and with the evolution of our main characters as it progresses. Love (particularly star-crossed love or ill-fated love) and obsession are key themes but they are not the only ones. Themes of filial piety, integrity, loyalty, ambition, vengeance/ revenge, sacrifice, atonement and redemption are also wonderfully built into this show. This is a dish of many flavours. It's not pure sugar though it may start off on the sweet side. It will surprise you with its turns of fiery spice, bitterness and sweet-and-sour, with a touch of savoury thrown in.
Also, to help you understand a bit of what the show is like so that you're prepared, here's a broad outline:
The first half is full of sweetness and comedy, light-hearted and fluffy with some small build-up of plot threads. The romance development here is eminently ML-focused (he falls in love first and fast) and it runs the gamut of playful to moving as it progresses.
The 2nd half will start to bring together several plot threads introduced in the 1st half and so side characters have more screen-time as the show fleshes their story arcs and motivations. The main couple will also encounter love trials along the line of star-crossed love/ ill-fated love (hence the Romeo & Juliet premise). The trials have sound basis and foundation though, so it's not stupid misunderstandings and noble idiocy type issues. But the trials eventually prove and confirm their love and in the end, they overcome them for a suitable end.
I'd really like to encourage you to watch this show as it is quite amazingly crafted and if you like romance shows with a bit more complexity to it and to have more substance to it, this will suit you very well.
ACTING/ CAST
With over 60 episodes, this show's cast is not small. Screen-time for our characters will fluctuate depending on the plot thread in focus at the time so please don't expect our main characters or main couple to continuously dominate the screen. The show takes some pains to explore and flesh out some of its key side characters too, which is really great because it makes the show less riddled with one-dimensional/ cardboard cut-out characters. Even our 'stock villains' are given realistic internal motivations and drivers, and the 'comic relief' characters surprisingly have a core of values in them too. I personally found myself growing fond of many side characters (e.g. Yuanji Immortal, Moon Immortal, Yan You, Water Immortal and Lian Yuan) which makes this show extra enjoyable/ watchable to me. Love them!
Spotlight on our main leads:
DENG LUN as Xu Feng (aka Phoenix), the Fire Immortal. C-novel readers will probably be a bit surprised at Deng Lun's portrayal and take as our God of War, but I liked this different characterisation of our main male lead in this drama. He's not your perfect male lead, not by any means, but he has a strongly loyal, warm and loving heart. This central and core aspect of his character is wonderfully and consistently portrayed throughout the show and Deng Lun's less imposing physic and his warm voice (I just loved the fact that he voice-dubbed his own character!) makes him a more approachable and less dominating character than his C-novel counterpart.
Acting-wise, I think Deng Lun did well in portraying Xu Feng's emotional and character development. I think he does his character justice and that's good enough for me.
YANG ZI as Jin Mi, our Little Grape and Flower Immortal. I personally think that this is not an easy role for any actress to portray as her character undergoes a lot of ups-and-downs, internal conflicts and changes in this show, but kudos to Yang Zi for being able to make her a naively cheerful Little Grape at the start, and to showcase her evolution as the show progresses. She had me invested in her character and in her character's story and progress throughout the show.
LEO LUO YUNXI as Run Yu, the Night Immortal. Like Jin Mi, his character also undergoes a lot of ups-and-downs, internal conflicts and changes in this show and I have to also hand it to this actor, he rose to the occasion in this drama. As one of the 3 main leads in this show, he certainly has not been overshadowed by his fellow co-stars on the acting-front and some of his key scenes really brought the emotions out through the screen.
I personally think that our 3 main leads were well-balanced on the acting-front. No one consistently overshadowed or out-acted the other, everyone was on more or less equal footing in terms of screen-presence and screen-impact, to me. The well-balanced nature of it made the show good, because there is nothing worse than to have a co-star consistently overshadowing or out-acting you in front of the screen, making the scene imbalanced and making the actor and character being overshadowed to be out of place.
MUSIC
There appears to be 3 theme songs for this show (male and female version of the opening, and the ending theme song), and while they are lovely and beautiful in their own right, and when well-employed in a scene they really elevate the moment, I personally felt that the limitation of songs later on became a bit of liability to the show as, with over 60 episodes, there is going to be inevitable song-fatigue. I personally think that this is one area in the show which could really do with additional work and improvement to make it truly great, but well, it is what it is.
RE-WATCH VALUE
I personally loved the first half of the show to bits and can see myself re-playing a lot of it in future. The second half where the real business end of the show starts picking up steam is compelling and addicting to watch for the first time because of the breathless anticipation of wanting to know what happens next. I am not sure how re-watchable this section will be in future once the suspense and excitement is over but it doesn't make this show any less impressive on its own merits.
EDIT: Since writing this review, I've re-watched almost the entire show twice more so clearly my fears about the watchability of the 2nd half was unfounded. In fact, a lot of the emotional scenes in the 2nd half were some of the best scenes in this show.
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